Getting the Most from Educational Marketing

“We’ve seen a significant rise in ad spend for social media and the like, yet direct mail is still proving successful”

First impressions count when it comes to educational marketing. In this week’s PIE Blog Jason Sullock, marketing manager at UK mailing house Washington Direct Mail discusses the potential for direct mail and how you can get the most from your strategy.

Educational marketing is critical to boosting the profile of your school and encouraging those prospects to visit.

In the digital age, we’ve seen a significant rise in ad spend for social media and the like, yet direct mail is still proving successful. We live in a world where 269 billion emails are sent per day, with the number expected to rise to a staggering 333 billion.

The increasing chance of losing consumers due to email marketing getting lost in the sea of junk mail is growing, and the change is occurring.

“In 2018, the likes of Facebook and even Google opted to incorporate direct mail into their marketing”

Multi-Channel Integration

Nevertheless, we certainly cannot undermine the success rate for online advertising. However, place the two communication methods together and you have a force that is, quite literally, unstoppable. The sheer number of people you can target is astonishing, and multi-channel integration has also proven its success rate, lifting response rates by an impressive 118%.

Programmatic mail is the buzzword of both direct mail marketing and online, creating hyper-personalised mail. For example, you can target those who visit your site or perhaps fill out an enrollment form but do not click submit. You can send out a piece of mailing within only 12 hours, proving much harder to ignore than a reminder email.

“Direct mail is also said to remain in the house for an average of 17 days”

Dimensional Mail

Dimensional mailers could prove wholly successful for your educational venue. There are many examples from both digital marketing agencies, and educational professionals hoping to promote their brand. For example, a direct mail campaign was produced for ATI Nursing, in the form of a dimensional educational booklet. This learning assessment campaign was designed for nurse educators to check whether their students were on track to pass their exams.

Dimensional mailers offer you the option of thinking outside of the envelope, renowned for improving engagement significantly across all channels – particularly social media. One thing is for certain, dimensional mail will increase responses – the primary objective for all marketing campaigns.

Marketing Brochure

The most common form of educational marketing are brochures and catalogues. This subtle form of advertising is experiencing more popularity, as it can reach significant chunks of your target audience and speak directly to them in their home. Likewise, it offers unique interaction and can be stored and even passed onto friends, unlike that of an online advertisement which you may struggle to recall.

Tangibility and touch are another clear advantage to direct mail, as it’s proven we respond better and recall messages to those we can touch. Another plus is that marketing brochures tend to be relatively cost-effective – especially if prospects hold onto the campaign.

“You stand to benefit from the knowledge your message is in the hands of your consumers, which you can never be truly sure of with online advertising”

A great example for a marketing brochure is that of the University of Roehampton, utilising direct mail to make students aware of their rebranding. They produced four different marketing brochures, each representing one of their colleges: Whitelands, Southlands, Digby Stuart and Froebel. The logo on the front cover is designed as a holding piece to represent one of their courses. The marketing brochure was produced with insights from staff and students and, as such, has proved wholly successful. This campaign is also an example of multi-channel integration, with the rebranding rolling out across online platforms and newsletters.

For those producing a marketing brochure, we also suggest investing in premium print. High-quality printing not only looks attractive but serves to improve your reputation. First impressions certainly do count when it comes to marketing. If you have put the time and effort into producing personalised direct mail, it’s likely your prospects will take the time to read your mailing.

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